Time felt like it was slowing down for wales when he thrust' the beam sabre towards the bridge tower, he was able to pick out the expression of one of the titans spotters standing by one of the windows an expression that was definitely of the deer in headlights variety, looking away he caught sight of a marasai right in front of him, preparing to do a shoulder charge

instinctively, the ensign opened up the throttle as the sabre made contact with armour plating, carving a huge gash diagonally along the bridge tower of the Kalinin while the rick dias accelerated towards his new opponent.

Something Sophie learned long ago was not to celebrate a hit on an enemy, because a response was soon to follow. As the Titans Salamis-Kai Nunavut was damaged by her cannon fire, it quickly returned fire with its megaparticle cannons.

The C-type was slower than the other Rick Dias models, but she hadn't any trouble getting out of the area which the Titans ship was strafing. The sooner she could help take the ship out of action the sooner they could move forward in this area. Or head back to the ship as the sensors were getting dangerously close to the redline. Until Eddie gave the word, Sophie would keep firing at the Sally-K, and fire she did as the over the shoulder cannon fired again toward the mid section of The Nunavut.

- Gamma Team -

As Nick banked his X-2 near the Kalinin a thought passed through Aaron's mind: I could just shoot him in the back right now and be done with the whole mess.... The thought lingered for a few more moments as he followed closely on Nick's tail. He couldn't bring himself to do it, so he continued to tail Nick, going who knows where.

- Buxoro Team -

The Rick Dias moved faster than he thought as it slashed the bridge of The Kalinin and turned to face him in his shoulder charge. Tim quickly tried to alter his course and bring his beam saber to parry the AEUG pilot's attack, but again the Rick Dias beat him to the punch.

Tim Melton didn't have time to worry about pain or even think about death. He burst like a bubble as the beam saber passed through his Marasai's cockpit and the green mono-eye of the Mobile Suit went dark.

- Bindra Team -

“Open fire to the left side of the AEUG team, they should keep moving where we want them to avoid our fire,” most of the message came through, so Nikolai got the gist of it: corral the AEUG.

Following his team leaders lead he fired haphazardly in the AEUG's direction, hoping to continue Lt. Ball's current plan.

August saw Tim’s Marasai went dead after being bested by Wales. He was never been a best buddy to Tim but something still register to him. Fear and anger fought with each other. As the de facto wingman he got a good position. He even remotely heard the solid lock chime on his console but somehow he couldn’t make a move.

Something was wrong. Few seconds ago before he saw Tim fought he felt like being hit. A hit that his mind registered akin to the punch in the jaw he got from a brawl years ago with a certain spacenoid when his knee just lost their strength and falter. And August knew it to be true when he couldn't move his limbs anymore. He was losing too much blood. But he couldn’t possible know before the shock came. Seconds latter his blood boiled and exploded like a balloon together with the rest of cockpit after the propellant tank ignited.

- Team 3 -

Got him! Irene exclaimed silently. Earlier she resisted pulling the trigger against the Salamis when she saw duos of Marasai passing to her right. Immediately knew they were heading for Wales and she adjusted her aim accordingly. The time window to intercept the first one (Tim) has long gone. But she lined her bazooka dead center at the second Marasai's back knowing there's enough time and range for this one. Firing one shell that went straight to the August Marasai's backpack. Making a quick mess and launched few sharp distorted metals through the cockpit like shrapnel that penetrate August's seat and bleeds him out before the explosive detonate.

The explosion obscured Irene's vision but the ship due to her size still clear in sight. Rather exhausted from her quick reaction, she aimed at the Salamis and fired her last bazooka round to the ship. She ship's defenses were rather quiet so she could aim properly at the ship’s missile storage near the bow section at the waterline.

Oh, to hell with this! Jacob crushed the now-empty can of light beer and zipped his helmet back on, brushing past Fritz as he exited the lounge. “Time to go out and kill that blue monster...” His mind, already addled by his fixation on avenging Clute’s death was now even further muddied by the alcohol he’d just consumed. He wasn’t going to sit on his ass any longer, fully resupplied or not.

Floating back out into the bay, Jacob found technicians and mechanics still working on the resupply of his Kanone Dias. “Stand clear! I’m headed back out!” Sager’s brow furrowed as he saw the kid floating over and interrupting the hard work his team was going. “We’re not finished yet! Hold your damn horses!” As he put his hand on Jacob’s shoulder, the younger man turned to face him with daggers for eyes and pushed him away with as much force as zero-g would allow.

“Get out of my way, you useless relic!” Popping open the hatch, he slid back into the linear seat and powered up all the systems. As Sager bumped into a nearby railing the Kanone Dias’ hatch closed and the rest of the mechanics and techs floated away in panic. “What is he, crazy!?”

The mech walked away from its berth and locked its feet into the linear catapult. Cannons recharged to seventy-two percent, clay bazooka’s fully loaded and propellant’s back up to full tank... Jacob cracked his neck in anticipation as the countdown ticked. “Jacob Markado, headed back out!” The red mech was thrown back out into space and wasted little time in beginning to track down its quarry. Where are you?

-Buxoro Team-

Elijah’s blood turned ice cold as he saw Melton and August’s IFF signals vanish from the tactical display on his upper right. “No...” The whisper was as much a whimper as it came from his mouth. For a brief moment, he felt weakness creep up on him as his leg twitched. But he silenced the doubts and the fears. He still had Vlad and they still had a ship to defend. There was still a battle to fight.

“Hold your ground, Vlad! We don’t give up!” He switched his COMs to the general Titans channel. “Bate! Unless you want us to cover your asses, get back to the Kalinin and save her before it’s sunk!” He barked as his and Vlad’s Marasais began to converge on the dying Salamis Kai. “If there’s any escape shuttles launching, we keep them alive! We mustn’t die until we complete our mission!”

"That's the problem with plutonium, Craven; it's limited in its application. It's not user-friendly. But as a vehicle for regaining one's self-respect; oh, it's got a lot going for it!"
- Darius Jedburgh, Edge of Darkness, Episode 6, Fusion

The Salamis Kai took another hit from Sophie, and promptly sent another barrage into their area, which Eddie avoided my unintentionally making the same maneuver in the same direction as Sophie. As her C-Type let loose another shell at the damaged Titan ship, Eddie relocated the distant Hizack he had targeted before and let loose a pair of beams from both of his weapons.

Ahead of them, Bernard recovered from his latest avoidance of the fire from the ship, only to find the maneuver and brought him further away from the ship and pairs of MS engaging in front of it. They were too close together, and too distant from him, for an accurate shot, so he did the next best thing and aimed at the Salamis Kai and let loose with half of his spray missiles on the damaged ship.

================================================================

-New Yark Team-

Hard AE swept in at maximum acceleration, firing a pair of shots that the Hizack barely juked around. Both machines activated their beam sabers at the last instant and they locked together. Ramon tried to bring his beam rifle down and aim it at the Hizack’s torso, but the Titan machine used its free arm to keep the weapon away.

Hard AE rotated his Nemo’s left arm, swinging the beam saber down and smashing the point of his shield toward the head of the Hizack at the same moment it had kicked his Nemo in the lower torso with both feet. An instant after the two machines had come together, they were rapidly growing apart again. Off balance and trying to regain control, Ramon nevertheless aimed his rifle at the Hizack and managed four quick shots before the rifle went dry.

The separation of the two units finally gave Bort a clear shot, on both nearby Hizacks. Excitedly sweeping across both, he fired three shells from his cannon and a half dozen shots from his beam rife at the pair of Titan machines, still pressing in trying to get close enough to Ramon to talk.

================================================================

-Hamburg Team-

The increasing fire coming from Gaza team forced the Nemos of the Hamburg team to shift even further away from the ships of the 4th. They responded with some beam rifle fire of their own, but it was just as inaccurate as that which was coming at them.

Uraki glanced to his left and saw the distinct flashes that indicated the Val Verde team had encounted the enemy. He clicked on the Hamburg team radio channel, “Keep our distance from those guys, and let’s try and link with the Val Verde group,” Kou said quietly, starting his Nemo backwards toward the friendly team, firing a couple of beams at the incoming Bindra group, while the others began to follow suit.

The first group of Gaza-C’s were fully engaged with the remaining suits of the Luzon and the Rick Dias team, but were so entangled that the gunners on the Luzon could barely fire without the risk of hitting their own MS. The fight was practically on top of the Salamis Kai at this point, and even the Eye-Zack had been forced to join fully into the fight, which essentially left Esfahani blind to the rest of the Gaza group and that other contact in the distance, except for what he could see with his own eyes.

Another stray beam from the melee in front of him slammed into the Luzon, this time near the engines, shaking the ship again. The Lieutenant Commander scowled and turned to his helmsman. “Start getting us back towards Echo,” He growled and resumed his attention of the MS combat in front of him. They were too exposed out here, and with the Minvosky jamming, had almost zero contact with anyone else. Their messages to the Kirov weren’t being acknowledged, if they were getting through at all. He felt the ship’s engines roar back to life and the stars and other points of reference began to shift slightly as the ship starting moving.

The second half of the Gaza group descended upon them, opening fire on both the ship and the melee in front of them without the concern for their allies the Luzon crew had. Esfahani winced as one of the Barzams exploded, along with a nearby Rick Dias. A Gaza-C in mobile armor form took a hit from the friendly fire and slammed into the legs of the Eye-Zack, which careened under the Luzon and out of Esfahani’s view.

And then what amounted to a wall of beams slammed into the Luzon as they Gazas swept by. Esfahani saw three more shots nail the forward section of the ship, further wrecking the hangar area. A pair of particularly well aimed blasts went for the starboard main guns, with at least one connecting and destroying the battery. Several beams hit the superstructure of the bridge tower, and Esfahani saw the Eye-Zack, missing both legs and a fair chunk of its radome, drift back up alongside the ship where a Gaza crashed into it in a bright explosion. Two seconds later, a trio of beams hit the tower almost directly on the bridge.

In less than a minute, the majority of the Gaza formation was past the Luzon. A handful were still in the area, still fighting with the last Barzam, Hizack Custom, and pair of Rick Dias. The Luzon was dead in space but still mostly intact as the surviving crew began to evacuate by any means possible, while the Gaza-C’s swept toward the next Titan ship.

================================================================

-Nunavut Team-

Faisal was half blind and a fair chunk of the screens in his cockpit were dead or static, but he could still see that one damn Nemo, half out of control like himself, firing more beams his way. The combination of both machines being awkward meant none of the shots connected, but then a beam from another Nemo nearby passed perilously close to his right, close enough to damage several of the connections in the arm and lock it up. Faisal switched the beam saber to the fully functional left arm and shifted back closer to the Nunavut and Babineaux, who barely managed to avoid fire coming from several different AEUG units.

Several of his screens came back online, giving Faisal a better view of his surroundings just in time to see the Nunavut take simultaneous hits from some small missiles and something a fair bit larger. They all hit near the forward section of the ship, and for moment Faisal thought the damage wasn’t too severe, but then a massive flash emerged and the bow practically disintegrated.

“Oh s***…” Babineaux breathed over an open comm, somehow cutting through the Minovsky jamming.

“Must have hit one of the magazines,” Faisal grunted and turned back toward the AEUG. The ships missiles and the Hizack weapons were close enough together it could have been any of that which cooked off, but the ship was still mostly intact, even though he could now clearly see into the hangar, and the beam cannons looked operational.

“What the hell is that? From our left,” Babineaux asked, drawing Faisal’s attention back away from the AEUG, which could be fatal given the circumstances.

Every single one of the roughly dozen Gaza-C’s opened fire, mostly aiming for the Nunavut, whose gunners were so focused on the incoming AEUG units in front of them that none managed to get off a shot. In an instant, the port side of the ship was engulfed in beam fire and every weapon there was destroyed. The Gazas were racing in quickly, and almost as quickly they were on top of the Nunavut and New Yark team MS. Faisal wildly slashed his beam saber at several close Axis MS, catching glimpses of Babineaux killing one with machine gun fire and another falling to one of the Nemos, but failing to hit any himself. And just as quickly, they were gone, splitting up as several headed directly into Echo’s formation while the rest went towards the mobile suit melee in front of the Titan ships.

Recovering, Faisal found himself with Babineaux close to the Nunavut, which had ceased all movement and weapons fire. Several shuttles were emerging from the remains of the hangar and were trying to get away from the ship as quickly as possible.

“Follow me,” He grunted over the team channel and accelerated toward the AEUG units, which were now a little further away than before the Axis unit had hit. They didn’t stand much of a chance, but he wanted to buy as much time as he could for more of the crew to get off the dying ship.

================================================================

-Kalinin Team-

“Where the f*** did he come from?!” Runnels swore as a Rick Dias swooped in and was on top of the Kalinin before either her or Bate could react.

Bate was charging at the machine but knew he would be far too late as static filled his ears as some other team tried to contact him. The AEUG suit slashed the bridge with its beam saber, causing several small explosions, then killed another Marasai from some other team. Bate raced in behind that one, aiming his beam rifle and letting loose two shots at the Rick Dias that wouldn’t risk hitting the already damaged Kalinin.

“More Zekes,” Runnels voice cracked in Bate’s ear, but he didn’t have time to look. Behind him, Runnels Hizack began sending bursts of machine gun fire at incoming group of Gaza-C’s, who began taking pot shots at the Kalinin, and the MS around them.

================================================================

-The Kalinin-
-Sub-Bridge-

In the heart of the Salamis Kai, Lieutenant Commander Parker took a breath as the situation became clear to the new Captain of the ship. Bate would have to handle the Rick Dias, but Runnels was alone and facing at least four or five incoming suits. They didn’t have direct view ports to see the area, getting all of their information from video screens, and far too many of the cameras were destroyed, or their feeds had been disrupted by damage.

“Tell the gunners to nail those bastards, and watch for Runnels,” He ordered, his voice far calmer than he expected it to be. Instantly, the ships main batteries opened fire, as did the anti-air guns, and they were rewarded by seeing one Gaza clearly explode from their concentrated fire. But the formation promptly scattered, and a return shot the already badly damaged forward section of the Kalinin. A rocket came from one of the AEUG units nearby, as if the Kalinin needed more to deal with, and hit the already wrecked forward section of the ship, adding to the carnage of the area but not doing much else. In response, one of the forward twin-barreled AA guns spun and let loose a long burst at the Rick Dias that fired the shot, hoping to keep it busy.

================================================================

-Beta Team-

All of their sensors alerted them to the incoming threat behind them, and Beta’s three suits promptly reoriented to engage the group of Gaza-C’s, only to find that stupid Hizack partially blocking his line of fire as it sprayed machine gun fire into the fact of the Axis group.

Wolf swore and rocketed back to the Hizack, his wingmen following suit. He and Sven promptly opened fire with their missile pods and bazookas while Daren followed suit with his beam rifle. The Axis team, blinded by the success of their last two attacks, was unprepared for Betas counterattack and five of the seven Axis pilots were dead in seconds. The other pair sprayed beam fire at Beta team and rocketed past them as they went evasive and headed for the main fight going on nearby. Wolf didn’t bother to fire again, as enraged he brought his Barzam right in front of the Hizack, touching to initiate skin talk.

“I got one!” The young pilot, Sunoue, reported, “That was close-“

“Why the f*** are you following me?!” Wolf demanded as he cut the pilot off, his Barzam’s bazooka not quite pointed away from the Hizack.

“I, uh, don’t know where my u-unit is, sir,” Sunoue stammered, confused and only knowing that the Barzam’s pilot from the Kirov had to be a higher rank than him. Ritter was so enraged, at the Hizack pilot, Axis, everything, that he didn’t say anything for long seconds, while Sven and Daren kept their eyes open for anything closing in.

================================================================

-Alpha Team-

As they pressed in on the chaos before them, Stukov saw one Rick Dias sweep in towards the Kalinin, but didn’t concern himself with that one. A pair of them were still in front of him, fighting with one of the other teams and trying to harass the Kalinin from some distance. Stukov fired a pair of beams at them, trying to get the range down. Pan and Dolk followed suit, sending some more scattering fire at the pair of Team 3 suits in front of them.

================================================================

-Gamma Team-

The fighting intensified toward the front, and Nick had a fairly decent view of what the latest swarm of Axis suits did to the 10th Colonial Patrol Squadron, but didn’t care.

It was a rather distinctive set of flashes, roughly near the center for the formation, that caught his eye.

…Could it be? He wondered, and once again kicked his X-2 to full speed. I can’t be this lucky…

He ignored everything else and focused on his targeting scope. It felt like forever before the image resolved itself into four mobile suits. Titan mobile suits. Two of which were X-1 Barzams.

Beta Team.

Grinning, he brought up his 120mm machine gun and swept a long burst of machine gun fire over them.

The AEUG team responded with inaccurate fire, but continued to move away from their fleet as Ball wanted them too…

But they were also drifting close to the area where the Peoron team now seemed fully engaged. That wasn’t exactly what Ball wanted, but as long as they kept away from those AEUG ships, it would be suitable.

“Keep up that flanking fire and let them move, and then we’ll press in,” He told his team calmly, sending another ill-aimed pair of shots behind the enemy team for more encouragement to keep them moving.

Then Griff died, a beam fired by an opportunistic Gaza-C struck his B-type square in the reactor mere seconds after he fired off his entire salvo of rockets at Alpha team's griffins, he didn't even get time to scream.

breaking contact with one of the blue suits Trask returned fire at the Gaza with his beam pistol, blasting its head off before focusing back on alpha team, who were firing loosely aimed shots in his rough direction, out the corner of his eye he spied a friendly IFF signal show up on the display panel, it was none other than Jacob Makardo, who looked to be itching for a fight going by how fast he was travelling.

"great..." he mumbled sarcastically "the big hero is out to save the day." he opened fire with the beam cannons at the titans ships again, ignoring alpha team as Victoria squad tried to draw their attention away from team 3.

--

Wales cried out as the impact from colliding with the Masarai shook him about in the cockpit, he was sure he felt one of the stitches break but couldn't tell which one.
"oww...thats gonna leave a mark" drawing his attention ahead of the dead mobile suit he was now shunting along, another Marasai blew up in front of him and he could see a third closing in with two more moving to intercept, plus a hizack focused on some axis mobile suits.

"don't push, there's plenty to go round!" he quipped between breaths, backing his smartass remark up with a bazooka round fired at the incoming titans suit and then kicking himself off of the Marasai the ensign had skewered, heading towards the distracted Runnels

-The Dervish-
-Hangar-

"oh crap!" Celeste blurted out as Jacob belligerently threw his weight around during his relaunch "he's going to ruin everything" without thinking she grabbed the controls and quickly followed suite while confusion reigned supreme, foregoing the catapult in favour of launching manually as soon as they were up to speed Celeste relaxed the throttle and let Celeine take the controls, nursing her injured arm that she had aggravated while trying to clear her head, thinking of where in this mess she could best find nick.

-Hamburg team-

having regrouped with Uraki and ishma, Paris kept up a steady stream of shots as best she could, trying to conserve as much energy in her beam rifle as possible. "we're getting nowhere, they're moving us further away from the ship!"

a couple of shots struck the shield, knocking the Nemo back a bit, narrowly avoiding biting her tongue Paris retaliated with a three round burst in the direction of whoever was responsible, keeping mindful of where her teammates were so she didn't get separated.

"She's right. At this rate we'll get strung out. I donkt know about you guys but I hate getting strung out. And we're in the middle of no man's land. Support isn't coming easy while we're in transition like this." Kite glared as he kept the shield up to defend the Nemo as the beam carbine remained stowed for now. Seeing how inaccurate his fire was the Ensign had no intentions of wasting energy trying tu suppress. It would be different if he had a projectile weapon, then he wouldn't mind. "This is insane," he sighed with no intentions of splitting and leaving the team behind.

The two Hizacks from the Nunavut Team began to charge them, apparently buying time for their wounded ship that was now being attacked by Axis suits as well.

Though the canon was best used against ships, it might give the two Titans pilots cause to pause and become easier targets for the rest of Team 2.

Sophie brought the cannon to bear on Faisal's Hizack and fired.

- Gamma Team -

This was it, the moment Aaron had dreaded since the operation had begun: Nick found Beta team and had opened fire on them.

The battle was still raging on with no clear victor, and with all of that going on around him the last thing he needed was to engage other Titans pilots in a vendetta that he wasn't even a part of. The easiest thing to do would be to bug out. If Nick made it back he could claim he was fighting off the Axis units that were near by.

Or...... he could shoot Nick in the back. That would wrap thing up nicely... Beta Team might even thank him.....

Who was he kidding. There was something off about Nick, he'd somehow sense what Aaron was planning and turn his rage on him.

Wait, could he read his thoughts....... this was too much for Aaron, the pressure was starting to get to him.

"Damn, where the hell is the EFSF?" he said as he scanned the area. "No way out, eh?"

He trained the 120mm machine gun on the area Beta Team was in and waited....

- Bindra Team -

“Keep up that flanking fire and let them move, and then we’ll press in."

Keep them contained, that was still the plan. And follow the plan Nikolai did. Although to be honest his shots were a little more purposely aimed this time. Hoping to take out one of the AEUG MS with a lucky shot.

The bazooka didn’t give quite the impact Irene hoped for. She didn’t know the Kalinin’s forward section along with its missile launcher was already destroyed earlier. Thanks to that effort one of the Titans ship's AA guns send a warm welcome. The Rick Dias launched to the side before opening up its thrusters once it was horizontally level with the Kalinin’s starboard side. As she avoided the AA guns burst, she thought that a small window of opportunity arrived. There’s nobody pursuing her unit, all of the units there were focusing their attention to the incoming Gazas. Even the nearly Vlad and Elijah weren’t paying attention to her Suit, at least not as intently as before.

The red AEUG MS let go of its empty bazooka and drew her beam gun all the while being chased by AA guns that once bit the leg armor with cosmetic damage. Its pilot fired back once with her dual wield beam gun however she soon hesitated. Her long year of service in the EF ranks bothered her, with the odd looking Zeonic MS out there attacking a familiar vessel seemed really out of place. Instead of delivering the coup de grace, she tried to ensure the crew to escape the doomed ship. She thought the Titans in command might need some more 'motivation' to abandon the ship thus her Suit continued strafing the Salamis Kai's hull in the less vital area, firing 2 shots from each gun while making sure not to damage escaping shuttles. Few distance away from where she aimed, pot shots from the Gaza-s landed on several places near the superstructure, to her luck one of nearby twin barrel AA guns placement was hit. Now, with the AA guns seems to be silenced she could howled to the radio warning the Titans, “Time’s up, evacuate NOW!”